Recommended Handheld Transceiver?

At 00:28 18 December 2010, Tony V wrote:
Free Flight 107 wrote:
I agree with all the above, Icom is the best. I've owned or used
several other brands, Icom head & shoulders above them all.


I bought the early Icom A-20 in 1985 because of the rock solid
reputation the brand had with the ham radio crowd. The only real
competition at the time was the (long gone) King handheld and the (also
long gone) Narco. I was not disappointed - the radio still works well
today and all I had to do was replace the NiCad pack every decade or so.

I finally replaced it with the Icom A-6 *only* because the A-20 was
comparatively large and that sometimes made it a bit when I was climbing

in the back seat of gliders all day long.

Tony V.

I still have my Icom 1C A-20 mainly because it is more robust and to my
mind the best that Icom produced. I remains the only approved airband
handheld radio that ICOM produce.

On Dec 19, 12:05*pm, Don Johnstone wrote:
I remains the only approved airband
handheld radio that ICOM produce.

Ok, I'll bite. Uniquely approved for what, and by whom?

Andy

The intended use is important to this discussion. I assume that this
is for air-to-air and air-to-ground use, not simply for ground-to-air.

We exclusively use ICOMs in our club and I am sold on them. We
standardized on the late/great IC-A4 (ni-cd) which, short of being
left out in the rain, is a great simple bulletproof radio. A bit
underpowered so was best used for local flights. One disadvantage was
the lack of a keypad, which makes freq changes harder. Again, club
use so was locked to 123.3.

So how about non-club and cross country use? My non-portable radio in
my glider was on the fritz back in 2009 so I began using a handheld
(ICOM IC-A5) in the air. The problem was the range and being heard by
other pilots, even through the A5 is more powerful than the A4, and
the same as the non-portable. The difference? I was using the
"rubber duckie" antenna. So I hooked the radio's BNC connector to my
tail fin antenna. The same BNC connector is on nearly every non-
handheld and handheld radio so it was a simple set up (on the ground
that is). And it worked MUCH better!

But as a pure *BACKUP* air-to-air and air-to-ground use, portable ICOM
with a full keypad (for quick freq changes) with a rubber antenna is
the way to go.

Good luck.

-John DeRosa

I am reporting that I purchased a ICOM IC-A6 Transceiver ($229 after
rebate from Marv Golden Pilot Supplies) for my backup radio. I really
appreciated all the input you nice folks have given me and it made me
feel assured that this was a good buy. Thank you all very much.